How to Use antagonistic in a Sentence

antagonistic

adjective
  • They found it impossible to deal with such antagonistic groups.
  • So those who are antagonistic to you might be very much all over social media.
    — Time, 18 Sep. 2022
  • In the latter video, a masked Tyler shoves his way through an antagonistic crowd.
    — Jade Gomez, People.com, 23 Oct. 2024
  • Not all presidents are so thin-skinned and antagonistic to the press.
    — Adrienne Lafrance, The Atlantic, 17 June 2017
  • What came out in this improv was how antagonistic these two different worlds of bats and birds could be.
    — Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Aug. 2021
  • For many people, fashion is a refuge from an antagonistic world.
    — Rachel Tashjian, Washington Post, 9 Sep. 2023
  • During the booking process the man was in turns carefree, then antagonistic.
    — Jeff Piorkowski/special To Cleveland.com, cleveland.com, 6 Jan. 2018
  • For as much as the local press was antagonistic toward wrestling, one match caught their attention.
    — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 28 Dec. 2020
  • There wasn’t any antagonistic issue or anything like that.
    — Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 7 Oct. 2025
  • There wasn't any antagonistic issue or anything like that.
    — Matt Audilet, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Oct. 2025
  • One is much more antagonistic, and the other is more brotherly.
    — Theo Brown, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Oct. 2023
  • Make government smaller, faster, and less antagonistic to people who want to build a life.
    — Mike Garcia, Oc Register, 9 Mar. 2026
  • That can help ensure the relationship between the doula and the rest of the health care team isn’t antagonistic.
    — Elizabeth Preston, STAT, 8 Nov. 2019
  • Ruff, in contrast, could fairly be called one of the most antagonistic cop-watchers, Hiller said.
    — Robert Klemko, Washington Post, 7 Aug. 2023
  • Esmeralda comes closest, but her role (at least in the early episodes) is more of an antagonistic one.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Many in the former crown prince’s camp take a sharply antagonistic stance toward the rest of the opposition.
    — Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 4 Apr. 2026
  • After several minute of antagonistic behavior, one of the men took him up on fisticuffs.
    — John Benson, cleveland, 14 Sep. 2022
  • Russia’s fake news law is a severe step for a country whose government is already antagonistic to the ideals of a free press.
    — Scott Nover, Quartz, 6 Mar. 2022
  • Serkis will return to his role of the antagonistic creature Gollum, around whom the film centers.
    — Rachel Raposas, PEOPLE, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Too seldom using that voice to stand up to the antagonistic patriarchal forces in her life and career.
    — Daniel Vaillancourt, Los Angeles Times, 29 Dec. 2021
  • That ended up meaning a lot of things that were antagonistic to North Korea.
    — Alex Ward, Vox, 12 Dec. 2018
  • For much of its past, consciousness research has always seemed rather antagonistic.
    — Big Think, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Musk, long a prolific and antagonistic tweeter, has not let up at all since taking over the company.
    — Clare Duffy, CNN, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Hampton is very antagonistic with Harmony in a way that speaks to a lot of history.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2025
  • That strange requirement is gone now, and so the field is less antagonistic for the younger generation more broadly.
    — Big Think, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Comments that once elicited antagonistic barbs are met with calm acceptance.
    — Jon Wiederhorn, Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2026
  • Every show’s got their characters that are sort of the odd man out or the antagonistic energies, and that’s who Rocky played.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 25 Mar. 2026
  • Every show’s got their characters that are sort of the odd man out or the antagonistic energies, and that’s who Rocky played.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 24 Mar. 2026
  • But many of the recent targets have been younger politicians known for their antagonistic stands toward China.
    — Joyu Wang, WSJ, 7 Jan. 2022
  • Barkov’s antagonistic relationship to Farah is one of the story’s main through-lines.
    — Nick Capozzoli, Ars Technica, 22 Nov. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'antagonistic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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